Many large companies compensate employees on a commission basis in relation to sales credited to the employees. Typically, the management structure of these companies is organized as a hierarchy from the company president, for example, to the sales representatives. In order to provide credit for a given sale to multiple individuals, such as the sales representative, the sales manager, and the like, these companies often have complex sales organizations developed to provide matrix coverage, or territories wherein multiple people or groups of people receive credit on a single sale. For example, sales credit may be distributed to multiple individuals by adding everyone who is to be compensated for a transaction to a sales team (e.g., adding managers into the sales team with the sales representatives), or to a compensation group. However, as the complexity of the management structure increases, so to does the administration of these sales organizations.
In addition, sales organizations developed from the current hierarchical management structure generally allow sales credit to be assigned, and compensation to be calculated, only for the latest instance of a particular sales model. As changes occur in the management structure of the company (e.g., reorganization or personnel changes), the complexity of properly assigning sales credit and calculating compensation becomes increasingly complex and administratively burdensome.